TechGirlz: Future female tech entrepreneurs shine

UNIVERSITY CITY (WPVI) -- It's called TechGirlz. It's an organization dedicated to encouraging girls to take on leadership positions in technology industries where they are traditionally under-represented.

TechGirlz is holding its third annual Entrepreneur Camp this week at Drexel University.

"Have them understand a little bit more about what technology affords them," TechGirlz founder Tracey Welson-Rossman said.

18 girls are at Drexel's School of Entrepreneurship this week to develop ideas, create a prototype, and generate a business plan.

15-year-old Michelle Bentley has come up with Foto Friendly, an app that allows you to interact with friends in a photo race.

"I like how creative technology is because it really allows you to do so many different things," Michelle said.

The camp is designed to address the fact that women lead less than 3% of tech startups.

"We're trying to create women who are going to embrace technology for their future careers," Welson-Rossman said.

"After I am a doctor, I want to pursue my technology interest and then combine the two so that we have new medical breakthroughs," 14-year-old Elizabeth Wong said.

13-year-old Jesenia Servance says the possibility she'll be able to apply technology to a career in marine biology is exciting.

"Just learning everything about technology, learning new things, and interacting with other people," Jesenia said.

The Department of Labor predicts there will be 1.4 million new technology job openings in the year 2020, but colleges and universities say they'll be able to fill less than a third of them.

And even fewer female college graduates will pursue jobs in technology.

"You think about it as isolated. For those certain geeks who live in their basement. You never think that maybe I can do that," 13-year-old Eden Fesseha said.

TechGirlz is trying to change that.